Heroine

About Heroine

Eavesdrop on real, vulnerable, intimate conversations with award-winning artists, best-selling authors, CEOs and execs you can’t get anywhere else – like listening to two good friends talking over a cup of tea or glass of wine. We go deep.

Publisher

Heroine

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

19 Apr 2016

Latest episode

16 Nov 2021

Latest episodes

1 of 143 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   16 Nov 2021

   Root and Ritual — Becca Piastrelli

   There are a lot of things wrong with the way we live our lives. While the average American spends 90 percent of their day indoors, we continue to feel completely disconnected from our food sources, and are lonelier than ever, especially in light of this pandemic. My guest Becca Piastrelli, author of a new book Root & Ritual, believes we can offset some of this modern angst by “rewilding” and reclaiming the natural part of ourselves. Becca is a friend, writer, speaker, ancestral folk medicine keeper, and women’s group facilitator. I’m thrilled to share her journey and work with you! In this episode, Becca describes how she grew up with an ache of unbelonging, and an inner knowledge that there had to be more to life than what she was taught by her family and the patriarchal, convenience-driven society within which she was raised. Acknowledging that change is very difficult, she shares her thoughts on connecting with our ancestry, navigating the pandemic, and handling grief. Her book Root & Ritual which I highly recommend offers practical wisdom, processes, and recipes for reconnecting with land, lineage, and community. Tune in today to learn more about her work that embracing old ways can make our modern lives feel significantly better. • Becca shares the anxiety she experienced growing up, and why she developed impostor syndrome at a young age. • The four parts which make up Becca’s book, Root and Ritual. • How Becca’s relationship with nature has evolved over time. • Different meanings that rewilding can hold. • Obstacles to rewilding that exist in our society. • The value that Becca believes lies in embracing ancestral ways of living. • Everyday experiences which highlight how disconnected we are from nature. • What Becca’s life currently looks like, and how she plans to change it. • The importance of human connection, which we are losing. • Becca shares her thoughts on navigating different opinions about the COVID-19 vaccine. • Our “great severing” from our ancestors. • A process Becca went through to rebuild lost ties to her ancestry. • Personal challenges that Becca has gone through, and her method of dealing with them. • Becca’s relationship with shame. • The long journey that is rewilding. • What Becca is currently reclaiming. References Becca Piastrelli - https://beccapiastrelli.com/ (https://beccapiastrelli.com/) Root and Ritual - https://beccapiastrelli.com/book/ (https://beccapiastrelli.com/book/) Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book (https://majomolfino.com/book) HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast (https://majomolfino.com/podcast)

2. 

   16 Sept 2021

   Writing Our Stories into Being — Angeline Boulley

   Writing a debut novel that becomes a New York Times bestseller is an impressive feat. Doing it over 10 years while raising children and working a full-time job is simply awe-inspiring. Angeline Boulley is the author of Firekeeper's Daughter, a layered Native American thriller. She is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and writes about her Ojibwe community. In today's episode, we learn more about Daunis Fountaine, the book's main character, and her distinctive character traits. While there are similarities between Angeline and Daunis, the teen character blossomed into something unique and fierce. We hear some moving excerpts from the book, and Angeline talks about the gravity of the regalia and elder scenes in the work. Our conversation also touches on the complexity of strong women, why the book is not a trauma story, and we also find out more about what Angeline's fascinating writing process was like. This moving dialogue around the power of women creators and the role they play in shaping their cultural stories will lift your spirits and potentially change your life. • Hear about what Angeline was like as a little girl. • Where Angeline grew up and insights into her cultural background. • Hear about what Firekeeper's Daughter's main character, Daunis Fountaine, is like. • How similar and different Daunis is from Angeline. • What Daunis's greatest virtue and greatest flaw are. • The tension that Daunis feels struggling with different aspects of her identity. • Why it was so important for Angeline to convey the significance of Daunis's regalia. • The role that elders play in the book and how Angeline views elders in all of our lives. • Why it was so important for Angeline to include the complex Aunty character in her book. • We do strong women an injustice when we place them on pedestals. • How the word "resilient” is often misused to justify suffering. • The balance Angeline had to find between telling the truth and overloading Daunis with tragedy. • How Angeline found time to write the book while raising children and having a job. • What Angeline has learned about being kinder to herself from having children. • The impact that having teenagers had on Angeline's ability to write a teen character. • Why Angeline decided to make her first book the epic work it is. • How Angeline learned the craft of fiction, given that she did not study creative writing. • The support that Angeline had during her writing journey. • Angeline's tips for aspiring writers: find what works for you. • What Angeline, as a heroine, feels she is reclaiming for herself. References Angeline Boulley - https://angelineboulley.com/ (https://angelineboulley.com/) Angeline Boulley on Twitter - https://twitter.com/FineAngeline?ref_src=twsrc%255Egoogle%257Ctwcamp%255Eserp%257Ctwgr%255Eauthor (https://twitter.com/FineAngeline?ref_src=twsrc%255Egoogle%257Ctwcamp%255Eserp%257Ctwgr%255Eauthor) Firekeeper's Daughter - https://www.amazon.com/Firekeepers-Daughter-Angeline-Boulley/dp/1250766567 (https://www.amazon.com/Firekeepers-Daughter-Angeline-Boulley/dp/1250766567) We Need Diverse Books - https://diversebooks.org/ (https://diversebooks.org/) Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book (https://majomolfino.com/book) Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com/ (https://majomolfino.com/) HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast (https://majomolfino.com/podcast)

3. 

   9 Sept 2021

   Home Is Not A Country — Safia Elhillo

   How do you relate to the country of your birth, if it’s a place you’ve never visited? And when does nostalgia go from being something beautiful to an illness that keeps you from living in the present moment? Our guest today, Safia Elhillo is a Sudanese American poet whose strikingly beautiful debut novel Home Is Not a Country is deeply informed by these questions of belonging, nostalgia, and identity. Her book is written entirely in poetic verse and follows the story of Nima, a 15-year-old girl who longs to escape the racism and bullying she experiences daily in America and become someone else. Safia shares how she was first drawn to poetry because of the sense of community she saw amongst poets at open mic night and how she steadily honed her craft. We discuss the challenges immigrant parents face in imparting their culture to their children and how nostalgia can deprive you of appreciating the richness of your present circumstances. Join us today for an insightful and meaningful conversation on what it means to straddle two worlds and the power of community. • Introducing today’s guest Safia Elhillo • Safia shares what she was like as a child and how she discovered her talent for poetry. • Safia’s experiences moving around a lot as a child and insights into her cultural background. • How Safia was first drawn to the sense of community among the poets she saw. • Hear about Home Is Not a Country’s main character Nima and how Safia created her. • How nostalgia and its effects inform the topic of Safia’s book. • How Nima is driven by a desire to return to the country her parents came from. • Nima’s experiences of racism, rejection, and loneliness in the US. • The extent to which Home Is Not a Country is autobiographical. • How Home Is Not a Country explores the confusion of growing up in America while straddling two cultures. • Safia shares her experiences of belonging and how her perspective has changed. • The significance of a chosen community. • Safia explains the concept of nostalgia as an illness. • The challenges that immigrant parents face in raising their children to care about a culture they are not immersed in. • The use of magical realism and Islamic mythology in Home Is Not a Country. • The logistical challenges Safia faced in using time travel in her novel. • How Safia chose to write the entire novel in poetic verse. • Why it’s important to allow yourself to write a bad first draft. • The value of community and outside input for revising your work. References Safia Elhillo on Twitter - https://twitter.com/mafiasafia (https://twitter.com/mafiasafia) Safia Elhillo on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/safiamafia/ (https://www.instagram.com/safiamafia/) Home Is Not a Country - https://www.amazon.com/Home-Not-Country-Safia-Elhillo/dp/0593177053 (https://www.amazon.com/Home-Not-Country-Safia-Elhillo/dp/0593177053) Break the Good Girl Myth - https://majomolfino.com/book (https://majomolfino.com/book) Majo Molfino - https://majomolfino.com/ (https://majomolfino.com/) HEROINE (Podcast) - https://majomolfino.com/podcast (https://majomolfino.com/podcast)

Inside a recent episode

Esther Perel on Masculinity, Power & Relationships at Work

Published 4 Oct 2018 · Transcript excerpt

[…] How do you elevate someone without at the same time putting them down? And this is the problem of all modern advice. I want to elevate you. I don't want to be your expert so that I, in fact, am putting you down and saying I know it better than you. I think that is actually not an honest proposition. […]

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